The Government should introduce legislation to make lying in the House of Commons a criminal offence. This would mean that all MPs, including Ministers, would face a serious penalty for knowingly making false statements in the House of Commons, as is the case in a court of law.
The courts can already do this - perjury is already a criminal offence, and people have been charged and convicted of this. The court case when someone is accused of perjury will explore things like “And what if they interpreted something incorrectly but believed they were telling the truth”. The courts will decide if the evidence shows if someone is lying, just as they do with perjury.
The courts already know the difference between saying something misleading because you were simply wrong (that’s not lying, that’s just being wrong), and saying something misleading with the intent to mislead (lying).
Because, define lying.
Even if you have proof the person was made aware of something, how can you prove they remembered it at the time?
And what if they interpreted something incorrectly but believed they were telling the truth?
And who gets to decide when someone is lying?
The courts can already do this - perjury is already a criminal offence, and people have been charged and convicted of this. The court case when someone is accused of perjury will explore things like “And what if they interpreted something incorrectly but believed they were telling the truth”. The courts will decide if the evidence shows if someone is lying, just as they do with perjury.
The courts already know the difference between saying something misleading because you were simply wrong (that’s not lying, that’s just being wrong), and saying something misleading with the intent to mislead (lying).
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